Its almost unbelievable to think that Streets of Rage was release 35 years ago on Sega Genesis. Streets of Rage is considered to be one of the most beat em up franchises in gaming history. The original Streets of Rage game came out back in ’91 the same year Sega released the first ever Sonic the Hedgehog game. Similar to that of Sonic the Hedgehog nobody in the 90’s could have ever imagined that the series would have became as popular as it did. The story for Streets of Rage revolves around a couple of ex-cops who become vigilantes to fight against corruption created by a crime syndicate headed by Mr. X. The story for Streets of Rage was very basic and featured three playable characters Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Adam Hunter. Each character had their own unique background with the gameplay of Streets of Rage being nothing more than simple button mashing.

Similar to almost every beat em up level each stage is full of henchmen that players have to defeat before reaching the boss battle. Streets of Rage had eight different boss battles along with great soundtracks which captured the vibe of each stage. There are soundtracks for levels like Fighting In The Street, Moon Beach and Violent Breathing that are considered to be iconic and have received countless remixes on Youtube for over the past decade. The graphics for the original Street of Rage game looked primitive compared to its sequels SORII & SORIII from ’92-’94. As a beat em up Streets of Rage was fun but it could not compare to other games like TMNT: Turtles in Time which also came out in 1991. The original Streets of Rage never got an arcade release which is something that could of helped expand its popularity back in the early 90’s.

Streets of Rage 1 was not considered a commercial success because it was seen as a generic beat em up game. Streets of Rage 2 from ’92 was the game that elevated the popularity of the series because of its quality and how memorable everything was. Despite, Streets of Rage 1 being considered weakest entry within the the trilogy from the early 90’s its still looked upon fondly. Streets of Rage series was obviously Sega’s way of competing with Capcom’s Final Fight series which was popular on the SNES back in the early 90’s. The Streets of Rage franchise has been around for decades and the best entry series Streets of Rage 4 came out back in 2020. Streets of Rage is a video game series that many still enjoy to this day and it would not be possible without the very first game from 1991.